Korigatachi
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: Hikaru goes for a walk and finds himself in the middle of a snowstorm. He has never been happier to find an unlocked building in the middle of nowhere.


**AN: We've reached the end of my fic backlog, and the last of the kiss prompts! (Which means it miiiight be a bit until I next post fic. Maybe. We'll see.) Prompt for this one was: Hikaru/Daisuke – shivering.**

 **o*0*o**

Stupid Go conference. Stupid secluded location. Stupid Hikaru for deciding to go on a walk. Stupid weather for deciding to storm. Stupid universe, Hikaru thought, teeth clacking together as he was wracked with another shiver. His thick winter coat, which had seemed like it would be warm enough to outlast negative degrees, felt pretty useless now. But that had been before he decided to take a walk on one of the trails out behind the inn in the middle of Podunk nowhere and before he had gotten lost and _before_ he had tripped down a hill and into a creek that wasn't as frozen as it had looked at the top of the hill.

He couldn't feel his fingers right and everything was so cold it hurt. His hair was frozen in spikes and he was shaking so bad that it was getting hard to walk. "So stupid," he chattered, voice wobbling, but better than just the crunch crunch crunch of his boots on ice and snow and dead plants. It was snowing hard and everything was white or gray or vague tree shapes in all directions. What if he lost fingers? How the heck was he supposed to place Go stones if he didn't have the right fingers?

Hikaru was hopelessly lost, and while typically you were supposed to stay still and not move until someone found you when you were lost, Hikaru had the feeling that if he stopped moving he'd be a lot worse off than maybe losing fingers or toes.

"Shoulda taken a bath." He staggered on in what he _thought_ was the right direction. "Shoulda sucked it up and played a game with Kida." Even though Kida was kind of worse than Ochi and way too full of himself for a kid that just barely made it to pro. (Hikaru had been a pro for almost five years now, he could call a new pro a kid even if the guy was technically older than he was.) "Shoulda just told the Association no in the first place." He should have known when he was the highest level Dan asked to go—and when Kida was chosen. No one liked Kida—that it was going to be a joke. A 'conference' for a backwater area of Go playing grandpas who'd pooled funds to get actual pros to show up. In an inn in the middle of the woods.

"Like some kind of horror movie scenario." He'd mumbled this to himself half a dozen times already, but it was much easier to repeat yourself and focus on how stupid the situation was than to reflect on the seriousness of the current moment. Touya was going to resurrect Hikaru's popsicle ass just to yell at him for dying in the middle of a woods. His mom was going to cry. Sai was probably giving Hikaru that sad disappointed look somewhere from some metaphysical plane of existence. Hikaru hated Sai's sad face. Like kicking a puppy or something.

He tripped, got a face full of snow that...didn't actually make much of a difference when there was so much snow falling and blowing up his nose anyway. It didn't burn the way the creek had burned, more a numb discomfort which was probably a bad sign. Hikaru shuddered in a miserable ball on the ground. Sai's sad face. Mom crying. Akari crying. Touya's murderous rage. Yup, he was getting up, still walking, gonna just... Hikaru forced himself to his feet.

"Gonna curl up in the biggest blanket," he said, numb lips slurring the words. "And drink black tea even though it's night. And ask for the biggest bowl of ramen the inn has. They'd better have ramen." He shuffled forward. Were the trees thinner here? It was hard to tell, just white, white, gray, and more white with that weird muffling effect that falling snow had. "Gonna get warm and replay as many of Shusaku's games as I can remember off the top of my head." Those were the Go equivalent of comfort food to him. Full of Sai but with none of the bittersweet feelings that replaying any of the games Sai played when he was with Hikaru sometimes held. "Gonna sleep for a week." Would almost dying be forgivable for not doing his job for the conference? Unforeseeable complications and circumstances and all.

Hikaru was an idiot and brought this on himself.

The gray was becoming thicker—maybe the sun was going down and it was just getting darker in general? Then he walked face first into something flat and solid and vertical that definitely wasn't a tree. Trees which he hadn't seen for...for...heck, he didn't know how many steps now.

"Ow." He felt the jar from hitting it in his nose at least. Not completely numb then. It was a wall of some sort. Hikaru could have cried from relief. He didn't but only because he was kind of scared that if he cried it would just freeze on his face and maybe freeze his eyes shut. Hikaru followed the wall, leaning against it until it came to a porch that was mounded over with snow, but it had a door and that was the most beautiful thing Hikaru had seen in hours. "Holy shit, let me in." It was less knocking than bodily falling against the door, but it got the same result. It was on the second attempt at knocking that Hikaru realized something that he should have probably noticed before, namely that there weren't any lights on in the window, and that the building was probably empty. And locked. This time he almost did cry.

No, no, there was still a chance he could get inside...somehow...and get warm. Warmer. _Dry_ at the very least.

Hikaru tried the door handle. Miracle of miracles, it was unlocked. He stared dumbly at the open door, snow blowing through the crack to speckle the entryway floor like salt spilled on a table. Either there was some higher power that took pity or the world was trying to balance out the shit luck of the day so far by some spectacularly improbable good luck. Hikaru didn't bother trying to figure out which. He all but fell into the room and shut the door behind him.

It was dark inside, so dark he could barely make out his hands now that he shut the door, but there was enough vague light from the windows that he could see a dusty space with guest sandals and a step up to the rest of the place. It must be a summer house or something. A summer house wouldn't have water or electricity during the winter months probably, but it was pretty likely he'd be able to find some bedding or something that he could warm up with.

It might just be his cold-addled mind, but Hikaru could swear there were wet spots on the floor ahead of him as well as the ones he left behind as slush fell off his coat and snow-encrusted jeans. He passed a kitchen (empty), dining room (empty), bathroom (empty), found a set of stairs and at the top was a bedroom (possibility?). He headed straight for the closet, numb fingers fumbling the sliding door open. There was a futon in there, folded up neatly with bedding on the shelf and Hikaru could have cried a third time. There was even one of those little gas space heaters tucked in the back corner. Hikaru pulled the whole mess out and started stripping, shivering even harder.

Had to get colder before he could get warm; off with the wet and surround himself with dry things. His fingers were clumsy on the clothes fastenings like they were twice as thick and much less flexible than they should be. When he finally got the clothes off, his hands felt like ice against his own skin. His body heat burned his hands. It felt like plunging his hand into too hot of water and pins and needles from it falling asleep at the same time. It was probably the good kind of pain though since at least he could feel it at all.

Three blankets went around his shoulders, then the whole futon, and he still couldn't stop shivering. His toes and ears burned as the blankets started to do their job and trap heat. Not enough though, he could already tell and he already knew he didn't have the dexterity right now to try and turn on the space heater. That and he'd have to climb back out of the blankets to do it. For all his ability at a game of strategy, applying strategy to life was not one of his great achievements.

Hikaru looked at it, sniffling as his nose had decided it was going to work again and was making up for being half frozen by dripping like a leaky faucet. He loosened the blanket to just turn the damn thing on when something crashed on the other side of the wall. "What the hell!?" He yelped, overbalancing and tripping over his trapped feet, face planting into blanket-padded floor. "Ow." Better than falling in the snow earlier at least.

"Hello?" Hikaru called, wondering for the first time if he wasn't actually alone here after all. The door had been unlocked. Maybe there was someone hanging out in the woods. In a snowstorm. With all the lights off and no electricity.

There was a second crash and a muffled exclamation of "Shit!" confirming that, yes, whatever was on the other side of the wall was human. Moments later another door opened and closed and someone staggered to Hikaru's doorway.

He was a bit younger than Hikaru was, maybe sixteen or seventeen at most, with the brightest red hair Hikaru had ever seen on another human being. He was also even more soaked than Hikaru had been with less layers and looked like death warmed over. He wasn't shivering much, and Hikaru wasn't sure if that was bad or not. They stared at each other for a moment before the stranger sneezed violently, smacking his head against the doorframe in the process.

"Oww..." he groaned.

"You're stuck hiding from the storm too?" Hikaru asked.

"You c-could say that." The stranger rubbed his arms, teeth clicking together partway through his sentence.

Hikaru's body seemed to take that as cue to remind him that he was still way too cold and shuddered hard. "Y-you know it's a bit better once you get wet stuff off."

"Don't have anything else to wear."

"Me neither," Hikaru said. His clothes were a sad pile on the floor. He should hang them up if he wanted any hope of them drying... "Blanket?" he offered because that was about the best he could do.

The stranger looked at the messy tangle of bedding and futon piled around Hikaru with a glazed expression. Actually his eyes had been a bit unfocussed the whole time. Not good. With a nod, the guy started toward the blanket nest.

"Wet clothes!" Hikaru reminded him with a yelp.

"Right." Off came the wet shirt and jacket—both black. Actually all of his clothes were black, was it a weird fashion statement?—then pants and socks. He didn't touch his underwear thankfully because near death or not, Hikaru really wasn't interested in getting _that_ up close and personal with a stranger.

Hikaru braved the cold to open a corner and try the space heater. It clicked a few times before it lit, but it did light, so yay, point toward his luck improving. Seconds later there was a rush of cold air as the stranger invaded the blanket bubble. Hikaru yelped as icy, damp skin pressed against his. Cold! So cold! Gah! He strangled the blankets back around them to at least block out the draft as the red-headed stranger latched onto him like he was a long lost lover.

"You. Uh. You okay there?" Hikaru asked.

"Mrrgh." There was a very cold nose against Hikaru's collarbone and red hair dripping water all down his front. Despite this, the blanket nest was warming rapidly. Hikaru's hands and feet were all tingly and achy, but very much still in one piece. The stranger's limbs could have been carved from ice for all the warmth they had though they didn't seem to share Hikaru's stiffness.

Hikaru poked him. The guy squirmed but didn't seem inclined to move. He was shivering now, smaller shivers than what had run their course on Hikaru's body, but at least his body was trying to warm up.

"We could sit next to each other...?" Hikaru said.

The stranger didn't move. He might have even gripped tighter. Hikaru didn't know what to do. His own shivers were starting to die down and when he flexed his hands they ached, but they bent without much pain or difficulty. He would live. His mom and Akari wouldn't have to cry! Touya would still probably try to kill him. But only because Hikaru got himself into this mess.

The stranger shivered a little harder and burrowed as close as possible, like he was trying to get inside Hikaru's skin.

"Okay. Sure. What's some huddling for warmth among strangers?" Hikaru muttered hysterically.

"Warm," the stranger mumbled.

"Yeah, better than out there." It was weird to have a guy practically in his lap, but it was warm, and that was kind of the point. It was getting warmer too as the space heater poured out hot air next to them. All at once, exhaustion hit him. Adrenaline or whatever else it was that had been keeping Hikaru trudging forward seemed to drop away all at once like being hit with a sack of bricks made of sleep sand. "You have a name?" Hikaru asked, eyelids drooping. He slouched forward leaning against the stranger as much as the guy was leaning on him.

"Mm. Dais'ke."

"Cool. I'm Hikaru." Hikaru's eyes slid shut. "Don't turn out to be a serial killer or something," he mumbled, losing the battle of staying awake.

"Hmm." It could have been a laugh, or it could have been Daisuke mumbling in his maybe sleep. Hikaru didn't find out. Instead of fighting the pull, he let go, letting his body rest like it wanted to.

o*0*o

It was warm. Hikaru was surrounded by something soft against his skin, curled up with someone else, bare skin against skin. Had he made the mistake of drinking at one of Waya's parties again and making out with someone? He wrinkled his nose as hair tickled against it. Whoever the other person was, they were drooling onto his collarbone. Hikaru's nose wasn't letting him breathe through it and his throat was a bit scratchy. Maybe not drinking then... He shifted, poking his head out of the warm cocoon of blankets and bodies. He squinted at the small space heater a meter away and at the unfamiliar walls. The person who had their face mushed against his neck made a soft sound of protest as he sat up straight.

Oh. Shit, right, the snow storm. And the person was... Bright red hair peeked out from the blanket folds. Daisuke. Their clothes were still strewn across the floor, probably not much drier than when they'd been stripped off last night. Daisuke's black clothing looked especially dark with sunlight coming through the windows, bright from reflecting off the snow. There was something reddish that glinted in the sunlight near the dark clothing pile. Hikaru blinked. His eyes widened. That was some fancy gemstone, one that Akari had gushed about just two days ago, waving a picture of it in his face because it was part of some collection being shown and she'd wanted to go see it. He had a vague memory of some famous thief announcing he was going to steal it.

"Holy shit," Hikaru breathed. He'd just spent the night in skinship with a thief. He knew what the thief looked like. Holy shit.

The body against his shifted again, a sleepy whine coming from the thief's throat. "Go back t'sleep," he mumbled pushing at Hikaru's shoulders. Hikaru slumped back, too much in shock to protest. The thief shifted up his body eyes still closed and a sleepy smile on his face. Hikaru went rigid as he was kissed.

The thief froze too. His brow wrinkled and his eyes slitted open before going wide. Faster than Hikaru could blink, Daisuke was on the other side of the room. Hikaru would think he'd teleported except he'd felt wiry arms push off against his chest. The thief's eyes darted around. "Who are you and where are my clothes?!" he asked.

"Uh." Hikaru pointed at the pile of clothing.

Quick as a flash, Daisuke grabbed his jacket, holding it in front of his body. A blush almost as bright as his hair trailed from his face and down his neck.

A shy thief. Huh. Hikaru scratched his hair, letting the blankets pool around his waist. Daisuke's eyes went wider as he took in Hikaru's bare chest. "So. There was a pretty bad snow storm last night and I'm pretty sure we both almost froze to death. We both got in here somehow and shared heat last night."

"Snowstorm..." Daisuke's eyes shot to the gemstone laying in plain sight. "...I vaguely remember a snowstorm. And crashing. And unlocking a door..."

"Is that how it got unlocked? Thanks for that. I'd've been dead for sure otherwise." Thank goodness for random houses in the woods with blankets and space heaters. "I went for a walk and got lost and then that snowstorm came from out of nowhere."

Daisuke twitched at that last sentence, but Hikaru wasn't sure what could possibly have set him off with that. "Right. And you shared blankets last night."

"And body heat," Hikaru said making his voice cheerful. He could either freak out or he could accept it and just get on with life. It was funnier to watch the thief freak out and chalk the whole thing up to one more oddity in his life. Next to being possessed by a ghost, sleeping half naked next to a thief in the middle of the woods wasn't that weird right? Right. Perspective. "You look okay at least. You were pretty out of it last night."

"Yeah..." Daisuke shook his head and seemed to decide that it wasn't worth being embarrassed any longer. He stopped shielding himself and chafed hands over his forearms to warm them. Even though the space heater had been going all night, it was still far from warm in the room. Daisuke had a couple of bad looking scars, one on his upper arm, and a few across his torso. Hikaru couldn't help but wonder if he'd gotten them in an accident like most people or if they were the sort of scars that could only happen to an art thief.

"Any idea what time it is?"

Daisuke plucked at a pocket and pulled out a cell phone. It didn't seem to be in working order as he frowned at it and pushed it back in his pocket. Probably too wet. He tried a different pocket and pulled out...a pocket watch. Who the heck outside of weird hoity-toity grandpas wore pocket watches? (Okay, no, Hikaru could totally see Touya with one. While wearing that stupid lavender suit of his too, like it would complete whatever look he thought he was going for or something.) "A bit after nine."

"Huh." Hikaru'd expected it to be later. The convention was meeting up for brunch in an hour. He was supposed to be checking in with the other pros to confirm the day's itinerary. "Do you think nearly dying from hypothermia and being lost in the woods is an excusable reason to not show up for work? Like. Excusable to a boss?"

"I...guess it depends on if it was an accident or not?"

"Well, I certainly didn't plan to get lost and almost die," Hikaru said drily. "But going for a walk was kind of my shitty idea, so I get where you're coming from. I'm probably going to be lectured and not get paid for coming here." He flopped backward and stared at the ceiling. "On the other hand, I'm not stuck in a room with Kida talking over my teaching games. I'm not sure if almost dying is worth the trade off."

"...teaching games?" Daisuke ventured.

"I'm a Go professional."

"I didn't know you could play Go professionally."

Hikaru tilted his head enough to send a frown in Daisuke's direction. Somehow in the space between Hikaru looking away and looking back again, Daisuke had managed to get his shirt and pants on. Silently. The gemstone was nowhere to be seen now. "I didn't know thieves could be body shy."

Daisuke twitched. "Who said I was a thief?"

"I saw the ruby whatsit. The Heartsong? Something like that?" Hikaru flopped back down. Daisuke hadn't made any aggressive moves yet. He probably wouldn't now either. His first instinct in finding a stranger sleeping next to him was to flee; that probably extended to other first instincts too. He heard a sharp inhalation. Tension radiated through the room like warm air off the heater. Hikaru let it roll over him and ignored it. He'd felt worse staring down Ochi over a Go board. "My friend's gonna be sad you took that. She wanted to see it at the museum. I'm not really that cool with stealing, but hey, I kind of owe you for unlocking the door and sharing body heat, so not going to mention I saw you or anything."

Silence.

Hikaru glanced up, half expecting the room to be empty. Instead, Daisuke was giving him the weirdest frown like Hikaru was the freak in the room, not the guy who could get dressed in a second and leap across the room in half that time.

"I just slept with you half naked across my chest," Hikaru said bluntly. "I don't know about you, but I'd feel pretty weird about turning on someone after something like that." He'd seen the guy vulnerable. Heck, he was still vulnerable. "Just don't come after any of my Go boards and we're peachy."

Daisuke's expression now matched Touya's 'What the hell kind of alien are you' expression which was kind of funny.

"Or don't kiss me again, I'm not into complete strangers."

And the embarrassed flush was back. "I'm not going to kiss you again! I thought you were someone else."

"Obviously." Hikaru smirked. "Aren't you a little young to be spending the night with your girlfriend?" Or boyfriend, he mentally amended. Daisuke's half asleep self hadn't been bothered by Hikaru's flat chest at all.

"I'm twenty!"

"Huh, you're older than me." He had a baby face then, because he didn't look a day out of high school.

"Put some clothes on!" Daisuke said, throwing Hikaru's shirt at him.

"It's still damp."

"Please!"

Hikaru put the shirt on, laughing internally at how Daisuke's blush still hadn't gone away. "Do you think there's a search party looking for either of us?" he asked as he wiggled into damp jeans. They were unpleasantly chilled and chafed in sensitive places. He kind of wanted to strip them back off and go back to hiding in the blankets, but the world was still turning and such.

"For me? No. You?" Daisuke shrugged. "Why are you so calm about me?"

Hikaru shrugged right back. "My life is full of weird shit. This isn't even the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me."

Daisuke looked like he wanted to ask what that weirdest thing was, but he didn't. "Where were you staying at?"

"An inn. Golden Wood or something pretentious like that. It's someplace that wants to be a resort but is kind of failing. And too secluded to be much more than the kind of place you go to try and be away from any other people." Hikaru shrugged again. "Not sure where it is compared to here. I had no idea where I was." Out the window it was sunny and blindingly sparkly as if every snowflake that had settled over the night was trying to reflect as much sunlight as possible all at once. "Yesterday you couldn't see more than a meter in front of you and now there's not a cloud in the sky. That's weather for you."

"Right, weather..." Daisuke kept his distance as Hikaru folded the futon and blankets again. They weren't nearly as neat as when he found them, but hey, maybe he could leave a note thanking the owner for having them. It'd be less annoying to find if they knew it'd saved a life, right? "I think that inn is north of here," Daisuke said after a moment. He had boots on now, and the jacket over his clothes. He looked about as uncomfortable in the damp clothing as Hikaru felt. "I can point you in the right direction."

"Uh huh. And I'll probably get lost again. Nature's not my strong suit." It wouldn't be hard to get a bit off and completely miss the inn and then freeze to death in broad daylight. "We could just wait for a rescue team."

"I don't plan to wait around for anyone," Daisuke said.

No, he wouldn't. Being a wanted criminal and all. "Well, you can go brave the snow if you want to. I for one have had enough brushes with hypothermia for one life. I need my fingers."

"Right..." Daisuke scratched his head, uncomfortably shifting from foot to foot.

"If anyone asks, I broke in here on my own," Hikaru offered.

The thief's eyes narrowed like he didn't really believe for a second that Hikaru would keep silent. But really, what would Hikaru say? Yeah, he'd met the thief and slept half naked with him too? Yeah, that'd be a story to tell the police. Daisuke stood out, but he was a phantom thief. He'd probably change his appearance in a heartbeat anyway.

At the heart of it, Hikaru didn't really care. It wasn't Go related in any way, shape, or form. Daisuke could go off into the snow and do...whatever thieves did when they weren't stealing things. Hikaru would raid this place for food and see if he could find something dry to wear.

"I'm leaving then," Daisuke said. He pointed out one of the windows. "North is that way if you end up trying to find the inn."

"See ya." Hikaru waved, leaning against the wall like he lived this sort of random happenstance every day of his life. Daisuke left the room without making a sound. Hikaru couldn't tell when he actually left the building. Watching out the window didn't really give him any help either. Ten minutes later Hikaru was still watching an empty stretch of pristine snow in all directions.

That was a little weird. Hikaru wasn't going to dwell on that because there were things in the world that he didn't really want to know about, and if ghosts were real who knew what else could be. Thieves vanishing into thin air? Probably not as impossible as it should be.

Ten minutes after that found him digging into a can of cold soup. Better than nothing.

Only fifteen minutes after he'd finished that (give or take; Hikaru didn't have a watch or anything), a rescue team showed up. It was comprised of two police officers, a snowplow driver, and one of the old guys from the Go convention he was supposed to be at. Apparently they'd had an anonymous call. Hikaru guessed that however Daisuke had left, he'd gotten someplace safe.

As Hikaru was bundled into a car to go to the hospital—which he didn't need; all his fingers and toes were accounted for and whole—Hikaru decided that this made the second weirdest experience of his life. Or maybe third if Sai's existence was separate from the moment Hikaru first got possessed. Whatever. The snow plow driver had a thermos full of hot chocolate which he shared. Hot chocolate, not being dead of cold, not working with Kida, and apparently being excused for his absence at work. Hikaru thought he'd come out of the endgame with a few moku in his favor. Maybe. If he didn't think about the whole nearly dying part. And hey, he'd met a legendary thief and lived through that too. For a town in the middle of nowhere, a heck of a lot had happened.

That said, next time they needed someone for something like this, they could find someone that wasn't Hikaru.

 **AN2 According to Wikipedia: "Korigatachi (凝り形** **) is often translated as 'over-concentrated', but more literally is 'frozen shape'. If a player uses his stones in an inefficient way, the result will be korigatachi." Puns.**


End file.
